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Including information on cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, and goats, and exotics like bison, rabbits, elk, and deer

How can anyone from a backyard hobbyist to a large-scale rancher go about raising and selling ethically produced meats directly to consumers, restaurants, and butcher shops? With the rising consumer interest in grass-fed, pasture-raised, and antibiotic-free meats, how can farmers most effectively tap into those markets and become more profitable? The regulations and logistics can be daunting enough to turn away most would-be livestock farmers, and finding and keeping their customers challenges the rest.

Farmer, consultant, and author Rebecca Thistlethwaite (Farms with a Future) and her husband and coauthor, Jim Dunlop, both have extensive experience raising a variety of pastured livestock in California and now on their homestead farm in Oregon. The New Livestock Farmer provides pasture-based production essentials for a wide range of animals, from common farm animals (cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep, and goats) to more exotic species (bison, rabbits, elk, and deer).

Each species chapter discusses the unique requirements of that animal, then delves into the steps it takes to prepare and get them to market. Profiles of more than fifteen meat producers highlight some of the creative ways these innovative farmers are raising animals and direct-marketing superior-quality meats.

In addition, the book contains information on a variety of vital topics:

This book is must reading for anyone who is serious about raising meat animals ethically, outside of the current consolidated, unsustainable CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) system. It offers a clear, thorough, well-organized guide to a subject that will become increasingly important as the market demand for pasture-raised meat grows stronger.

REVIEWS AND PRAISE

“If you’ve ever wanted to know what it takes to raise, market, and sell animal products, The New Livestock Farmer is the book for you. Rebecca Thistlethwaite and Jim Dunlop have put together a complete guide for raising everything from poultry to goats and rabbits to beef. The book provides a wealth of information about breeds, animal husbandry, processing, and the business side of livestock farming. It’s a valuable resource for anyone new to farming or curious about how to start.”--Carrie Balkcom, executive director, American Grassfed Association

“The real question for the reform of livestock agriculture in the US is whether we can move from a media saturated with images of what we can’t stomach—digestively or culturally—to a more sophisticated understanding of practical and ethical alternatives that make ecological and economic sense. As a farmer and a teacher, I have yet to find a guiding text that does it so well or so comprehensively. Thistlethwaite and Dunlop take us step by step from the open-ended question of breed selection to the finality of slaughter options, providing clear pathways of decision-making for farmers, students, consumers, and advocates.”--Philip Ackerman-Leist, professor, Green Mountain College, and author, Rebuilding the Foodshed

"The livestock farmer of today must master not only the vast skills necessary to be an ethical rancher but also marketing, sales, processing, packaging and so many others. Rebecca and Jim’s book is a humble and deeply informative guide from a couple that has been deep in the metaphorical and literal weeds of this challenging work. Without thriving agricultural-based communities, resources like this book are invaluable substitutes, creating a network of like-minded land stewards. Rebecca and Jim have done a good turn in sharing their knowledge in this straightforward and honest primer."-- Marissa Guggiana, co-founder, The Butcher’s Guild, and author, Primal Cuts: Cooking with America’s Best Butchers

“My husband and I have farmed for a living all of our adult lives, and farmed with our parents before that. So we had the good fortune of being surrounded by people with deep generational knowledge when we started out. I can’t imagine how new farmers are making it today without that kind of support. Recently we added Large Black hogs to our small farm in north-central Kentucky. The New Livestock Farmer came to us just when we needed it. It is what my father Wendell Berry would call the best of books because it is a tool. It fills a cultural need, and will give beginning farmers just the information they need, just the way they need it.”--Mary Berry, executive director, The Berry Center

“Great practical advice on choosing the species to raise, humane treatment, and marketing. Informative chapters on processing, regulations, and starting a business.”--Temple Grandin, author of Humane Livestock Handling and Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach

“When it comes to raising healthy livestock in harmony with the land and the local community, this book shows why the old ways are new again… and why they work better than the industrial methods that are all too popular today. The detailed instructions in these pages are all you need to start raising livestock ethically and sustainably. In fact, I’d say it’s a better investment than an agricultural degree from a land grant university.”--Mike Callicrate, owner, Callicrate Cattle Co. and Ranch Foods Direct

“Responsible and healthful meat consumption starts on the farm, literally from the ground up, with solid and ethical animal husbandry practices. The New Livestock Farmer provides a clear understanding of how to achieve fulfilling and delicious results. The authors share their proven wisdom to help small-scale, grass-based farmers avoid the pitfalls of an often confusing and intimidating agricultural landscape.”--Adam Danforth, author of Butchering Beef and Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Thistlethwaite

Rebecca Thistlethwaite is the author of Farms with a Future (Chelsea Green, 2012). She runs Sustain Consulting, which specializes in food and farm issues, working with both nongovernmental organizations and for-profit businesses. Her website is http://rebeccathistlethwaite.com.

Rebecca also operates a small farm and a community farm stand in Oregon with her husband and coauthor, Jim Dunlop, and their daughter, Fiona. They previously owned TLC Ranch in Watsonville, California, where they raised organic, pastured livestock and poultry, selling to direct markets across Northern California.

CONNECT WITH THIS AUTHOR

Jim Dunlop

Jim Dunlop works as a horticultural research manager for a progressive fruit orchard in the Columbia River Gorge.

Jim also operates a small farm and a community farm stand in Oregon with his wife and coauthor, Rebecca Thistlethwaite, and their daughter, Fiona. They previously owned TLC Ranch in Watsonville, California, where they raised organic, pastured livestock and poultry, selling to direct markets across Northern California.

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

What makes a farm sustainable and successful? And what special qualities and skills are needed for someone to become a successful farmer?

Rebecca Thistlethwaite addresses these and other crucial questions in this uniquely important book, which is a must-read for anyone who aspires to get into farming, or who wants to make their farm business more dynamic, profitable, and, above all, sustainable. Over an entire year, the author and her husband-experienced farmers themselves-took a sabbatical and traveled the length and breadth of the United States to live and work alongside some of the nation's most innovative farmers. Along the way they learned about best practices, and a whole lot about what doesn't work.

Farms with a Future shares this collective wisdom in an inspirational yet practical manner; it will help beginners avoid many of the common mistakes that first-time farmers make. Just as importantly, it discusses positive ideas that can help make any farm enterprise vibrant and financially profitable. Profiles of more than a dozen representative farms help round out the invaluable information and encourage farmers to embrace their inner entrepreneur. Younger growers, in particular, will benefit by learning about "the right stuff" from both their peers and longtime experts.This book provides a useful reference for beginning and experienced farmers alike. While many other books address agricultural production, there are very few that talk about business management for long-term sustainability. Farms with a Future offers an approachable, colorful take on building a triple-bottom-line farming business.

For decades it has been nearly universal dogma among environmentalists and health advocates that cattle and beef are public enemy number one.

But is the matter really so clear cut? Hardly, argues environmental lawyer turned rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman in her new book, Defending Beef.

The public has long been led to believe that livestock, especially cattle, erode soils, pollute air and water, damage riparian areas, and decimate wildlife populations.

In Defending Beef, Hahn Niman argues that cattle are not inherently bad for either the Earth or our own nutritional health. In fact, properly managed livestock play an essential role in maintaining grassland ecosystems by functioning as surrogates for herds of wild ruminants that once covered the globe. Hahn Niman argues that dispersed, grass-fed, small-scale farms can and should become the basis for American food production, replacing the factory farms that harm animals and the environment.

The author—a longtime vegetarian—goes on to dispel popular myths about how eating beef is bad for our bodies. She methodically evaluates health claims made against beef, demonstrating that such claims have proven false. She shows how foods from cattle—milk and meat, particularly when raised entirely on grass—are healthful, extremely nutritious, and an irreplaceable part of the world’s food system.

Grounded in empirical scientific data and with living examples from around the world, Defending Beef builds a comprehensive argument that cattle can help to build carbon-sequestering soils to mitigate climate change, enhance biodiversity, help prevent desertification, and provide invaluable nutrition.

Defending Beef is simultaneously a book about big ideas and the author’s own personal tale—she starts out as a skeptical vegetarian and eventually becomes an enthusiastic participant in environmentally sustainable ranching.

While no single book can definitively answer the thorny question of how to feed the Earth’s growing population, Defending Beef makes the case that, whatever the world’s future food system looks like, cattle and beef can and must be part of the solution.

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If you love the joys of eating home-garden vegetables but always thought those joys had to stop at the end of summer, this book is for you. Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat. Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine.

This story of sunshine, weather patterns, old limitations and expectations, and new realities is delightfully innovative in the best gardening tradition. Four-Season Harvest will have you feasting on fresh produce from your garden all through the winter.

Drip irrigation is the best way to help any plant flourish and survive tough times, especially short or long droughts. Pick the wrong "stuff " and you easily can feel overwhelmed. Robert Kourik's Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates clearly explains how to use less water yet increase the yields of vegetables and promote the growth and flowering of all plants--trees, shrubs, and container plants--in any climate, even where it rains irregularly.

In the tradition of the original groundbreaking book, this fully revised edition incorporates new information essential for gardeners, including how to manage limited water supplies with precision and efficiency, without the clutter of hundreds of widgets and gizmos, and the knowledge is shared in Kourik's inimitable, friendly, down-to-earth, and easy-to-understand style.

Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates,reveals how to:

Utilize drip irrigation for everything you grow--trees, shrubs, hanging plants, container plants, and vegetable and flower gardens --and save up to 50 percent of your water compared to sprinklers.

Use a streamlined configuration of hardware and tubing.

Choose the best, sturdiest hardware that will last for decades in your home landscape and vegetable garden.

Pick tubing that has no emitters punched on the outside--these have a tendency to break off--and use this tubing buried beneath the surface to irrigate without losing any water to wind or evaporation.

Roll out a drip system in a very short period of time, avoiding tedious hours punching in emitters or adding smaller tubing to reach each plant.

Capture and reuse gray water and cistern water for irrigation.

Construct a system in which the main parts are effectively hidden or can be simply attached to an existing garden faucet.

Individual projects are carefully detailed and include: how anyone can construct a system by attaching it to an existing garden faucet or the main water supply, constructing larger assemblies for big gardens, irrigating all sizes of potted plants, easy ways to irrigate a vegetable garden, and how to lay out tubing for the best health of trees and shrubs.

First published in 1977, this book—from one of America’s most famous and prolific agricultural writers—became an almost instant classic among homestead gardeners and small farmers. Now fully updated and available once more, Small-Scale Grain Raising offers a entirely new generation of readers the best introduction to a wide range of both common and lesser-known specialty grains and related field crops, from corn, wheat, and rye to buckwheat, millet, rice, spelt, flax, and even beans and sunflowers.

More and more Americans are seeking out locally grown foods, yet one of the real stumbling blocks to their efforts has been finding local sources for grains, which are grown mainly on large, distant corporate farms. At the same time, commodity prices for grains—and the products made from them—have skyrocketed due to rising energy costs and increased demand. In this book, Gene Logsdon proves that anyone who has access to a large garden or small farm can (and should) think outside the agribusiness box and learn to grow healthy whole grains or beans—the base of our culinary food pyramid—alongside their fruits and vegetables.

Starting from the simple but revolutionary concept of the garden “pancake patch,” Logsdon opens up our eyes to a whole world of plants that we wrongly assume only the agricultural “big boys” can grow. He succinctly covers all the basics, from planting and dealing with pests, weeds, and diseases to harvesting, processing, storing, and using whole grains. There are even a few recipes sprinkled throughout, along with more than a little wit and wisdom.

Never has there been a better time, or a more receptive audience, for this book. Localvores, serious home gardeners, CSA farmers, and whole-foods advocates—in fact, all people who value fresh, high-quality foods—will find a field full of information and ideas in this once and future classic.

Today only a few dozen large-scale producers dominate the greenhouse produce market. Why? Because they know and employ best practices for the most profitable crops: tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, leafy greens, lettuce, herbs, and microgreens. The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook levels the playing field by revealing these practices so that all growers—large and small—can maximize the potential of their protected growing space. Whether growing in a heated greenhouse or unheated hoophouse, this book offers a decision-making framework for how to best manage crops that goes beyond a list of simple do’s and don’ts.

As senior trial technician for greenhouse crops at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, author Andrew Mefferd spent seven years consulting for growers using protected agriculture in a wide variety of climates, soils, and conditions. The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook brings his experience and expertise to bear in an in-depth guide that will help readers make their investment in greenhouse space worthwhile.

Every year, more growers are turning to protected culture to deal with unpredictable weather and to meet out-of-season demand for local food, but many end up spinning their wheels, wasting time and money on unprofitable crops grown in ways that don’t make the most of their precious greenhouse space. With comprehensive chapters on temperature control and crop steering, pruning and trellising, grafting, and more, Mefferd’s book is full of techniques and strategies that can help farms stay profitable, satisfy customers, and become an integral part of re-localizing our food system. From seed to sale, The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook is the indispensable resource for protected growing.